Tag: Making A Change

The Problem With Complaining

Achieving Goals, Happiness, Health, Success

There is often a sense in today’s culture that suggests that we should complain because we might get something out of it. The goal being to get something not to have an issue fixed. There are also times when we have a legitimate complaint, where something has gone wrong. I’m not talking about either of these types of complaints in this post.

What I am talking about is moaning about day to day things that we are unhappy about. In conversation with a colleague I complained about the time I would have to get up in order to catch the train to a training event in another city. Rather than the socially accepted response of validating my moaning, they said, “Well you did volunteer for the training.”

The point is that most things that we complain/moan about are things we have signed up for but we still want sympathy for the effort we have to put in. If you want to be productive, effective or in demand you have to change your mindset and quit the moaning. If you just get on with it life will be better for you. You will be happier and you will become someone others go to in order to get things done. A simple change in habit will have a big impact.

Changing Your Habits

Achieving Goals, Happiness, Success

We often feel that making a change in our lives, whether it be a change in diet, to exercise more or working on our craft, the change often seems too big so we don’t do it, or we start and don’t continue. I have procrastinated so many times when it comes to making beneficial changes but I’m trying a new strategy, to make micro changes in my habits.

When a plane sets off to fly long distance a small change in direction can become a big change in where the plane ends up. Micro changes in habits work the same way. The trick is to make a small change, so it doesn’t seem so scary, and be consistent with it, so it becomes the new normal.

I’ve had a lot to deal with personally over the past few months and I have not been posting on this blog. I’ve also been procrastinating and prioritising other things. I’ve decided to make a small change and commit to posting once a week on a Monday morning. A small change with a big difference, as blogging helps me as much as it helps my readers.

I’m also cutting down on the amount of caffeine I intake each day. I’m limiting it to one cup of tea a day. I usually have two or three when I am at work. A small change hopefully with a positive outcome, as caffeine makes the pain from my fibromyalgia worse. You can make small changes too, the result of which can be very beneficial, even life changing, depending on the change you make.

Look for a small change that you can make and give it a try, consistently. You might surprise yourself at how successful you are.

Making A Better Tomorrow

Achieving Goals, Happiness, Relationships, Success

Life is a series of moments. Some are good and some are bad. This is pretty obvious. However, we often don’t think in this way about the time we spend and the experiences we have. Sometimes we think a bad situation is permanent and will always be like that. Sometimes we think a good situation will not last.

It is true that all thing shall pass. That is to say that everything is temporary and part of a process. When a bad thing happens we can’t wish it away or try to change what happened. What we do have power over, however, is what we choose to do about the situation we are in.

If we see where we are and what is happening as a process we can plan and set goals and work towards a better situation. If you don’t like you job or your relationship or your home life change it. Either work on making it better or make a change. A new job might be better than staying where you are. An honest conversation with your manager might improve your working environment. There are always things you can do to make this moment a step towards and better tomorrow.

Looking The Wrong Way

Happiness, Health

Water is evaporated from the oceans of the world and the water vapour becomes clouds. The clouds rain on the hills. The rain become rivers and the river make their way to the ocean. This, as we learned in school, is the water cycle.

When we look at a cloud we rarely think of the ocean. We think of the rain that is about to fall on us that will either ruin our day or water our garden, depending on how you look at it. Likewise, we don’t often think about the causes of the things that happen in our lives. We focus on the effects of what happens.

A lot of what happens in life are a result of our habits, our diet, whether we exercise, the way we think about things and how we react to things. All based on our habits. We have patterns of behaviour that mean we have similar experiences again and again in life, due to our habits.

The point is that we are looking at the rain and we should be looking at the ocean.

Make A Change

Achieving Goals, Success

Often we feel like we are stuck in a rut or caught in a loop and we just want to be free of it. We want life to improve, so we don’t get the same results that we always get.

The problem is that the results we get in life are largely a result of our actions or lack of action. Repeated results are often caused by repeated behaviours. In fact, it is our beliefs that spark our thoughts, which lead to our behaviours, which in turn produce our results.

As I have said before, the change needs to be in the beliefs we have about what we can do, what our options are and what is possible.

Make a change in your beliefs and you will get different results in life.